On The Shelf: Of old friends and anniversaries

 Even though Marvel Comics is a unit of the Walt Disney Company, Disney appears to be reluctant to license any new comics for Marvel. There was a miniseries based on a Disney World attraction a few years back, but it must've sold to the equivalent of crickets.

That said, Dynamite has picked up licenses to relaunch two popular Disney properties from the late 80's and early 90's.

Gargoyles debuted last month, with Dynamite becoming the 3rd publisher holding the license, after Marvel and Slave Labor Graphics. Series creator Greg Weisman is on board as the writer, incorporating elements that some of you might not be familiar with, as now there are little gargoyles running around. Yeah, some of the boys have started families, something carried over from the SLG run in the mid-00's. If Dynamite has the SLG books, we'll see new trades coming in 2023. A facsimile edition of the 1st Marvel issue from 1994-5 will be out in February.

Rating: A-.

In the 70's, DC felt that it was time to make some changes with their lily-white Amazons in the pages of Wonder Woman.

Enter Nubia, who has experienced a resurgence in recent years, as DC continues to make more moves toward greater inclusiveness. Nubia was introduced in Wonder Woman (1st series) 204, a facsimile edition of which was released last month. Incredibly, she is meant to be Diana's twin sister, even though she has the appearance of an African-American.

A storyline in the mid-70's turned Nubia into a villain, in time for her to earn her first action figure, courtesy of Mego.

Luckily, Nubia is now on the side of good again. Unfortunately, she has not yet made her television debut, but who knows?

I think Mike Sekowsky was wrapping his run on Wonder Woman when this issue was first released around 1972-3.

Rating: B.

The other incoming Disney revival from Dynamite is Darkwing Duck, fresh off a stint on DisneyXD's revival of DuckTales. The new series begins this month, and a facsimile edition of the 1st issue of the Disney Comics run (distributed through Gladstone Publishing) will be out in March.

So who's next? 

With Young Justice having wrapped its run on HBO Max, it's time to take a look at a miniseries that was supposed to be a bridge between the final season and a proposed 5th season.

Young Justice: Targets, written by Greg Weisman, was released in digital format first, which is why each issue seems to fly by, never mind the extra ad pages. You're better off waiting for the trade paperback.

Rating: Incomplete.

Over at American Mythology, Zorro gets his 1st Christmas special here in the US. Two of the three stories were imported from Spain or Mexico, and translated into English. One stand-alone, book length tale would've sufficed in this writer's opinion. Nice art, but the stories could've been expanded.

Rating: B--.